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Saturday, August 17, 2013

French Femme Mystique Debunked!

This week I picked up a copy of Madame Figaro and had my socks knocked off...way off. A major debunk of the Americam obsession with the French woman as the be-all and end-all of chicness, elegance, and ye old JE NE SAIT QUOI. You know what I'm talking about. At last PBers.

They are just as confused and tortured by romantic relationships as the rest of us. They are human after all!

The weight thing is completely debunked and nothing to do with eating cabbage soup the live-long day, which by the way I've yet to see on any menu or the ready-to-eat prepped food area at Monop. They smoke. A lot. That's minus 7 pounds for you.

Many American authors are mentioned in the article who have spread the myth of the perfect French woman including Pamela Druckerman for suggesting French kiddies are little angels and not vrai monstres. In my opinion they come pretty close but that's just my observations and what do I know?

Here's the irony. The French are quite obsessed with American style. In the same issue of MF the 'Palm Beach' look is given 4 pages.

Jennifer Garner gets a big write up. Last week's Elle had Jennifer Annison as the first story?! They are completement fou with her.

Last page of MF features US TV star of 'Bones'. Go figure?

The obsession with American fast food drives mecompletement fou/crazy. Did I mention wearing Franklin and Marshall T-shirts are IN and the The Preppy look is hot for ados (adolescents)

Anyone can have great style..no matter were you live..I find accents.. give a charm..If you put 2 French women side by side ..one with a lovely parisian accent..the other not..silly me I find the accented one more attractive..the same goes for a man with a British accent..(Michael Kitchen ..say..) same man..no accent..I find the accented one more..And in life..these days as I approach 60..I pretty much find everyone attractive:)Love the style of Ines.. I had never even eard of her before you.

Less is more.. for sure..but I still like lots of necklaces together..or bracelets.Flowers..just more...never less.

Haaa--grass is always greener, eh? Makes sense--I remember when I was in Paris, seeing a few really stand-out elegant French women, but most were "meh." The stand-outs stay in my memory, though, and I guess hence the mystique. doesn't surprise me they watch what we do since we do that with them.

I love the article.So, those women ARE human.But,when in Paris one of my favorite pastimes is still to sit in a café and watch them strolling,biking,and scootering by.People watching is just not the same in the US.

I've been around Frenchies my whole life, there & here. I'd say that of course it's overdone, yes. BUT there is something they have/do that is different & quite appealing. Not all, not all the time but it is there. If there weren't something to it, it wouldn't have become a *thing*...I tire of the over-adoration, though.

DITTO!So far there are no books out there like,What Every French Man Knows etc.How come men get off so easy and are not pushed to feel deep disatisfaction with themselves the way women are?It's a conspiracy IMHO.

Oh, Guilia, how I tire of the over-adoration, too! I call it gushing; so do my French friends. So silly. And now we await what's her name's new book (the one who told us French women don't get fat)- "French Women Don't Get Facelifts." Oy.... She needs to meet a few French women I know (and love). J'adore France always though!

Lucy & Carol...yes! (And while my French friends are unusual in that they don't smoke or sunbathe....that is unusual & I was surprised. The Frenchies I knew when I was little & in my mid20s/30s ALL smoked & sunbathed. Love them dearly but their skin looks like old luggage now. :(

The French already have an enormous number of magazines and they are not going down the drain any time soon like in the US. They even have big and little sizes of the same magazine like Elle or Grazia. I haven't figured that one out yet.

A fair amount is true (smoking) but no entirely. You don't see a French woman wearing flannel pj bottoms and flip flops in the grocery store (or in Picard's for that matter). You won't see a table not set beautifully in a French women's house no matter what she is serving. You won't get a bouquet of flowers, a plant or even a key chain not wrapped up when you buy them (c'est pour offrir? ). La presentation counts whether in a store, in a purchase on or a person. They are simply not "negligée" in putting themselves together.

No one is questioning those excellent qualities of French women Jacqui.This is about the slightly insane adoration and wannabeness that is sold to US women.We can never be good enough unless we become more French or more something else after this wears out, breeding a constant dissatisfaction with ourselves.Plus most of it is complete BS IMHO.

Finally, you get around to mentioning the smoking here. It does take pounds off but it also kills. The real problem is that while one is free to kill oneself, killing other people with second hand smoke is simply unacceptable in any civilized society. I won't even go so far as to say that this is a civilized society since there is so much second hand smoke and so much denial of the horrific effects of disseminating toxins into the air. Tutoring07

I Was fascinated by the story on the 'reality' about French women...upshot they smoke they fake it...don' t buy as many fancy undies as we do..and the rest was too slangy to understand. It's also true that French women admire American stereotypes and copy then..it is all a weird cultural fantasy..like the extreme French addiction To cowboys and the mythical old movie created West, to be continued,Happy days, DIANE

What do I think? i know that nearly ALL editors of women's magazines are women!!!! That's the shocking part. Models being size zero etc.

The French, like the Italians have an allure, a style and it is mesmerising. However, I can tell you that most of these women are not very intersting, not very individual or authentic or very happy for that matter. Their lives revolves around maintaining to be that person they think they need to be. How crazy is that?

Women's magazines feed us an unrealistic image. I never read them coz I find them rather boring! Jennifer Aniston, do I need to say anymore?

ParisBreakfast Letters

♥carol gillott♥

l'Ile Saint Louis, Paris, Ile de France, France

Hi I'm Carol Gillott,
My Mom taught me watercolors at 5. I'm still at it but now tripping over cobblestones on l'Ile Saint-Louis In Paris. Savor Parisbreakfast with a hot chocolate and croissant.
I paint Paris dreams.